April 23 – The Somali Football Federation (SFF) has again called for African Peacekeeping troops to withdraw from the country’s National facility in Mogadishu and allow it to be returned to football.
This is the seventh time since 2012 that the SFF has asked the African Union to remove its troops from the facility.
The request was made by SFF senior vice president, Ali Abdi Mohamed, as he addressed a the farewell party held for Somalia’s U-23 national squad before they flew to Rwanda on Wednesday, for the preliminary qualification clash for the 2016 Olympic Games.
“SFF has several times demanded for the troop withdrawals from Stadium Mogadishu and today we here by sending another strong call to African Union and we say to them please vacate your troops from the national facility,” said Ali Abdi Mohamed.
“I hope that our minister for youth and sport who is with us here today will hardly push for the withdrawals of African Union peacekeepers from Stadium Mogadishu.”
The Mogadishu stadium was build with Chinese aid in 1978, but 70,000-seat facility has been rarely used by the Somali FA since the country fell into anarchy 24 years ago. The stadium has had several occupiers since 1993 when it was base for American troops in Somalia.
From 2007-2009, it was home to thousands of Ethiopian troops who invaded Somalia to defeat the once powerful Islamic Courts Union, before it was occupied by Al-Shabab in January 2009. Finally from 7 August 2011, the facility has been home to thousands of African Union Peacekeepers helping the federal government of Somalia.
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